First egg, birds hatched July '24 - isn't it a little early?

[Mike521]

Hi all, we got our first egg today!! We were so excited!! But I'm wondering if it's a fluke, or the start of regular laying..

Our chickens hatched in late July last year and never started laying before the winter hit. I know they slow down and/or completely stop laying when the days are short, and since our girls were young, it wasn't surprising that they never started laying last year - I was expecting them to start laying in February or March. Any thoughts on whether this was a fluke?

The reason I'm trying to guess is because we still have our nesting boxes closed off - the girls were sleeping + pooping in them up until a month ago so I blocked them off. But if they're gonna start laying regularly I can remove the block, so the eggs aren't dirty. I just don't want them to poop the nests up again though, it was a PITA to clean last time

Thoughts?

 

[Evadig]

Hi and and congratulations on your first egg!

I think it is the start of your hens’ laying careers - it might be unpredictable in the beginning, but by springtime they should be fairly consistent.

You could block off the nesting box at night and open it back up in the morning to avoid them sleeping in there. Or maybe try it open one night and see if they’ve learned to perch by now?

Hope this helps !

 

[aart]

I've had pullets start laying about this time of year, the days have been getting longer since Dec 21 and they can perceive that.

Make sure your roosts are long enough for the number of birds and higher than the nests.

 

[Yardmom]

This is a very common time of year for summer hatched pullets to start laying. Yes it is time for the nests to be prepared for use

 

[Mike521]

thanks all! I like @Evadig 's idea of blocking the nests at night, I might try that for a little while. We have a camera in the coop and I can see that they've all been using the perches for quite some time now.. but the perches aren't particularly high (they are a few inches higher than the nesting area). It's an aivituvin coop we ordered online, we're planning to replace it this summer.

Glad to hear that they might regularly (sporadically) start laying earlier than I expected

 

[Mike521]

I just wanted to post an update for anyone curious or future readers. We pretty quickly stopped blocking the nests at night, and the girls kept sleeping on the perches. I do get a poop here and there in a nest box, but for the most part they're keeping them clean, so problem solved and now we finally have eggs

Oh and more of the girls starting laying - we're getting 2 - 4 eggs per day (from our 6 hens), and 5 of them are doing the submissive wing-spread + squat gesture when I approach, so there's just one that hasn't started laying yet

 

[FrostRanger]

Welcome!
So funny story. About a year ago, I had 2 easter egger pullets. One hadn't laid yet (Thyme) and the other (Parsley) had been laying since maybe September or October. One evening in December right around Christmas I collected the eggs and noticed that Parsley's egg was larger than usual. I think "cool, she must be laying larger eggs since she's getting more mature". Wasn't until maybe a month later when I got 2 eggs that I realized that the large turquoise egg I was getting was Thyme's. She literally started laying exactly when Parsley went on break and I was none the wiser for a whole month. I am thoroughly convinced God has a sense of humor lol

 

[Mike521]

haha well the chickens definitely have a sense of humor, I used to work at a nature preserve/farm and I always said chickens were the funniest animals on the farm (even though they don't mean to be funny)